Bringing Black Works to Broadway

[stagedoorguy]

Posted: 8/26/13 at 3:36pm

Join me for a conversation in The Greene Space, NYC for a conversation with leading producers about BRINGING BLACK WORKS TO BROADWAY.

Elliott Forrest

Sept. 17th , 7pm

http://t.co/egBWk2SVpp


The Greene Space

Updated On: 8/26/13 at 03:36 PM

[sephyr]

Posted: 8/26/13 at 5:38pm

This sounds good!!

[stagedoorguy]

Posted: 8/27/13 at 2:35pm

Should be very enlightening. Here's a description of the event:

Set in the 1970s, Jitney is the very first play that August Wilson penned in his American Century Cycle and yet it is the only play that has not made its way to Broadway.

Of the roughly 33 plays and musicals to open in the 2011-2012 Broadway season, only five featured prominent African-American characters, actors or storylines.

Join WQXR's Elliott Forrest in a thought-provoking discussion about the challenges and triumphs of bringing Black works to Broadway. Featuring Woodie King, renowned producer and director, whose credits include Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone and The Piano Lesson; Stephen Byrd, a prominent American theater producer and a vital force behind the emergence of African-American productions on Broadway; and Jack Viertel, Artistic Director of Encores!, and who has helped shepherd five August Wilson plays to Broadway.

[FishermanBob]

Posted: 8/28/13 at 4:11am

I won't be able to attend but it will be interesting to see how much time they spend discussing how to get more Black themed works to Broadway and how much time they spend talking about getting people out to see them once they are there. I'm a huge fan of August Wilson having been introduced to his works by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival 15 years ago. I've seen 9 of the 10 plays in the cycle, 4 of them on Broadway. The 4 on Broadway were all very well done and very poorly attended barely filling half the house and each lasting only a few months. At the risk of being controversial, my sense is that the larger issue is getting Blacks to see these shows and presenting shows that have crosssover appeal to non-Black audiences (I'm white myself BTW). I was transfixed by Phylicia Rashad in Gem of the Ocean and couldn't understand why a work like that struggled to last 2 months and was barely able to scrape together the financing to open at all.

They mentioned the 2011-2012 season. If you look at the shows that have prominent African-American characters, actors or storylines (I counted 6, not 5 by the way and I didn't even include Hair, Godspell or JC Superstar one or more of which I suspect had at least some African American cast members in significant roles)

A Streetcar Named Desire
Clybourne Park
Magic/Bird
Stick Fly
Porgy and Bess
The Mountaintop

almost all of them with the exception of Porgy and Bess and Clybourne Park barely lasted 3 months and were not well attended. I know a number of prominent regional theater companies like the Signature Theater Company in New York and others are very supportive of African American playwrights, sometimes even directly commissioning new works. Having grown up in a racially diverse neighborhood myself (Washington Heights), I enjoy these types of works but there need to be more people who develop a taste for these topics and themes for these shows to be successful once they reach Broadway. I hope they focus at least part of the discussion on how to get audiences to see them as until there is a proven audience and the shows that do make it are commercially successful, they will struggle to find producers and investors willing to agree that more of these shows need to be brought to Broadway.

[anmiller07]

Posted: 8/28/13 at 5:48am

I would love to come to this but wouldn't make it back to Philly on time for work. Oy, all the NYC events I want to go to are held during the week! Any chance this could be broadcast or recorded as a podcast?

[stagedoorguy]

Posted: 8/28/13 at 10:43am

Great questions. I"ll include them.

In the meantime see FENCES live tonight online:

http://www.thegreenespace.org/events/thegreenespace/2013/aug/28/august-wilsons-american-century-cycle-fences/?utm_source=local&utm_media=treatment&utm_campaign=carousel&utm_content=item0
August Wilson's FENCES live tonight

[Unknown User]

Posted: 8/28/13 at 11:12am

Why is this being presented by the Greene Space? Why isn't Black Space doing it? For that matter, the Greene Space ought to be trying to get Greene Works to Broadway.

[stagedoorguy]

Posted: 8/28/13 at 12:16pm

The event will be streamed live. You can watch at home on your computer. Check out www.thegreenespace.org that night!

[anmiller07]

Posted: 8/28/13 at 4:16pm

Oh great! Thanks for that update.

[stagedoorguy]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 11:53am

Leave more of your questions here and I'll include them in the live streamed conversation.

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 8:43pm

Pofgy and Bess was a limited run wasn't it? And as a black man and avid theatregoer, I was not really impressed with Claybourne Park. JMO

I have posted an interview I did with the cast of Radio Golf in Denver a few years back and wil try to post it again. A very good conversation happened regarding blacks in the theatre and attending.

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/29/13 at 8:47pm

Here it is. And just an aside, a thread on the subject popped up on Broadwayworld on the morning of the day I did the interview so I brought it up. Something I had planned to talk about briefly but it became a big part of the piece. Please let me know what you think if you read it.

https://www.broadwayworld.com/denver/article/In-Conversation-The-Cast-of-Radio-Golf-at-the-Denver-Center-20090426

Updated On: 8/29/13 at 08:47 PM

[uncageg]

Posted: 8/30/13 at 6:52pm

Just an observation, 4 years ago when the article ran there was a good discussion on this subject here. 4 years later, the thread has a lot of "looks" but no real discussion. Any thoughts on why?